Rising Australian Stars

Corey Hogan

If you’re a regular reader of Hooked on Film, then you certainly don’t need to be reminded that the Australian film industry has become a powerhouse in recent years. Australia has always been known for its endless stream of acting talent ready to export to the city of stars and beyond: Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Toni Collette… sometimes it feels like there’s more Aussies in Hollywood than Americans. Our invasion looks set to only grow from here, especially with so much up and coming talent.

Here are three local actors who you soon won’t be able to stop hearing about. And here’s the catch – none of them have reached their twenties yet. It’s enough to make anyone look back and think, “damn, what the hell have I done with my life?”

Odessa Young

A quick glance at nineteen-year-old Odessa Young’s filmography might seem a tad underwhelming; there are just a handful of short films, guest roles on TV series and two features to her name. But this is what makes Young’s career so impressive. The few roles she’s had have made such a splash that the teenager has skyrocketed to one of Australia’s most promising up-and-comers. Her scene-stealing performances as the titular characters of both Looking for Grace and The Daughter have mesmerised; the latter of which earned her an AACTA award, ranking her alongside seasoned greats like Jacki Weaver and Cate Blanchett.

Young now has a whopping list of projects on her plate this year –  another two local short films, two TV series and a shift to Hollywood for high-profile thrillers Assassination Nation and Sweet Virginia.

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Angourie Rice

Sixteen-year-old Angourie Rice kicked off her career in Perth with the aid of her director father (Jeremy Rice, Cloudstreet) and actress mother (Kate Rice, Ocean Star). Her fame has now surpassed them both; starting with a number of shorts and commercials, Rice attracted attention with her role in Zak Hilditch’s post-apocalyptic short film Transmission. So pleased with her work, Hilditch kept her on as the female lead in his similarly-themed feature film These Final Hours, which enjoyed such a healthy festival run that Rice was almost immediately exposed to (and swept away by) Hollywood.

After lending her voice to the animated Walking with Dinosaurs, Rice cracked the big time in a starring role next to Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys, and returned home again for another lead in this year’s Jasper Jones. Next up? Only Sofia Coppola’s new film The Beguiled, and an entrance to the unstoppable Marvel universe in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

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Levi Miller

Another young actor appearing seemingly out of nowhere and skipping straight to stardom, Levi Miller has shown he holds the charisma and charm to carry entire films on his shoulders – pretty amazing for a fourteen-year-old. Leaping from a mere extra role, to guest starring on popular shows Terra Nova and Supergirl, to playing the one and only Peter Pan in Joe Wright’s reboot Pan, Miller has crossed that bridge to Hollywood and achieved in a couple of years what most actors take a lifetime to barely crack.

Granted, Pan was a critical and commercial failure, but it’s done nothing to stop Miller, who’s atoned for this by leading two Australian films in the last six months alone – the prequel Red Dog: True Blue and Jasper Jones. Miller’s back to Hollywood next, for Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of the classic science fiction novel A Wrinkle in Time.

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Image courtesy of  Madman Entertainment, Palace Films & Roadshow Films 

Top 5 Australian Films of 2016

Corey Hogan

If you’re still one of those people who writes off Australian film out of “cultural cringe” or fear that you’d simply be paying for big screen versions of Packed to the Rafters, then boy, are you missing out. Every year our local industry is increasing its repertoire with better and better releases; lately, much of it is even surpassing cinema from the rest of the world. Why bother with the disappointment of countless Hollywood sequels, remakes and reboots when there’s so much original content being made in our own backyard?

That said, what better way to celebrate Australia Day than to check out some of 2016’s best Aussie films? Last year was a colossal showcase for the great things our filmmakers are capable of, and if we keep releasing such excellent films it won’t be long until the industry is a force to be reckoned with across the globe.

5. Girl Asleep

Australia’s own Wes Anderson emerged last year in the form of writer/director team Matthew Whittet and Rosemary Myers, though the pair somehow managed to out-eccentric even Anderson with their bizarre coming-of-age oddity Girl Asleep. It’s basically Moonrise Kingdom on meth. Like a feature-length Tame Impala music video, every single shot is a dreamy, perfectly framed visual marvel that proves more than ever that our home-grown technical prowess can easily rival international counterparts, even on a micro-budget. The characters may be stereotypes, but they’re perfectly cast, especially young Bethany Whitmore, making a breakthrough as the titular girl. It’s awfully quirky, almost overbearingly so, but for anyone who can deal with this it’s a short and sweet sensory delight, and likely a new favourite for the alternative crowd.

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4. Red Dog: True Blue

Red Dog is probably one of the last films you’d expect to get a follow-up – with its titular pooch tragically biting the dust at the end, where else is there left to go? Director Kriv Stenders’ answer is backwards – to the days when Red was just a pup named Blue, up to all sorts of mischief with his young owner (Levi Miller). Unlike most prequels, True Blue actually feels worthwhile, cleverly narrowing its focus to a single setting and just a couple of characters. It’s great fun, highly entertaining and once again ultimately heart wrenching, but in an uplifting way; one for dog lovers everywhere.

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3. The Daughter

The quarrelling family drama is a long-time staple of Australian cinema, and in some ways Simon Stone’s debut does channel classics like Lantana and Jindabyne. But the sheer operatic volume of strife, contorting twists and juicy secrets breathe a new life into the genre, and make The Daughter a familial storm for the ages. Stone rewards patience, with a brooding unease hanging overhead throughout the film’s slow build as a man (Paul Schnieder) returns to his rural Australian home to witness his father (Geoffrey Rush) remarry to a younger woman, culminating in explosive showdowns and a bleak finale as he unearths some deep, dark secrets. The cast is to die for too, also including Sam Neill, Miranda Otto and breakout star Odessa Young.

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2. Down Under

Divisive is certainly one way to put Abe Forsythe’s pitch-black comedy Down Under. To some critics and audiences, it was making light of a taboo event (the 2005 Cronulla riots), and many found it difficult to follow an ensemble of such violent, hate-filled characters fuelled by xenophobic impulses. But they missed the point – Forsythe wants us to step back and deduce these characters and their actions, and deconstruct the abhorrent beliefs that are stilled ingrained in Australian culture; boldly, he shows that both sides of the coin are both equally capable of brutality. On top of its strong messages, it’s suspenseful, shocking and incredibly compelling – and it’s bloody funny. A biting and timely satire.

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1. Goldstone

Indigenous writer/director/editor/composer/cinematographer Ivan Sen must be some kind of filmmaking miracle worker. Pulling off all of the above simultaneously on his sequel to Mystery Road, Goldstone is a rip-roaring blend of neo-Western, mystery thriller and balls-out action, all under the guise of an art film. Australia has a new icon in the form of Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pederson), whose investigation of a missing woman in a desolate town far removed from reality stirs up massive repercussions. David Wenham and Jacki Weaver have an absolute ball as the sinister inhabitants of Goldstone, as does Alex Russell as Pederson’s buddy cop. Darkly comical, beautifully shot, and packing more punch than most major Hollywood releases of last year, it’s a true crime that Sen was so largely ignored at the last AACTAs – but then again, how often do awards shows really get it right?

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Images courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment/Kojo Group, Roadshow Films, StudioCanal and Transmission Films

 

Movie Review – The Daughter

Take the drama from all twenty-nine seasons of Home and Away, condense it into a single movie, then actually make it watchable, and you might have something resembling Simon Stone’s breakout hit The Daughter.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Corey Hogan

Middle-aged Christian (Paul Schneider) returns from America to his remote, rural Australian hometown to celebrate his father Henry (Geoffrey Rush) remarrying to a younger woman. He reconnects with his high school buddy Oliver (Ewen Leslie) and his dad (Sam Neill), and is introduced to Oliver’s wife (Miranda Otto) and daughter Hedvig (Odessa Young). But things are not as wholesome at home as they appear at first; as Christian reintegrates himself he unearths deep, dark family secrets, and his attempts to set things right could tear apart the lives of the people he left behind him years ago.

Reimagined for the 21^st century from the 19^th century Norwegian play The Wild Duck, Simon Stone’s (director of the “Reunion” segment in The Turning) debut feature The Daughter is a rare mystery that rewards patience. Much of the film’s first half is spent simply introducing the economically decaying country town and its inhabitants, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones from Christian’s perspective, while only very gradually revealing the connections and tensions between each character.

Stone purposely keeps us in the dark for as long as he can, and it’s a highly effective method – enjoyable as it is to meet these very real-feeling people, something ominous hangs overhead. Stone’s script flows at an impressively smooth pace, creating a daunting amount of tension before the secrets spill forth and everything unravels explosively.

His rattling mood is captured to such great power thanks immensely to the striking visuals (or lack thereof) conjured up by cinematographer Andrew Commis. Every frame holds a dim, low lighting practically dipped and smudged in greys and greens; clouds blotted against the sky mirror the storm brewing within the family. And when it finally hits, it’s astonishingly dark, bubbling in an intense series of confrontations and juicy twists. Though its brain-stimulating guessing game may lead some to pick a few of its reveals early, it’s no less exhilarating when they arrive.

The ensemble cast are a hugely appealing bunch, and each handle the stressful material terrifically. Geoffrey Rush is a brooding, temperamental transgressor as Henry, equally sympathetic as he is deceitful. It’s great to see Rush, along with fellow Hollywood exports Sam Neill and Miranda Otto at the top of their game and showing admirable gusto in a local film. WA-born Ewen Leslie too proves he is capable of matching his heavyweight co-stars in emotional range , and Paul Schneider is a more than welcome American addition, delivering some of his best work to date. But it’s the fresh-faced Odessa Young who impresses most as the titular teenage daughter, graduating from a handful of small-screen roles, to this year’s Looking For Grace and a knockout performance in The Daughter that will surely have Tinsel Town calling soon.

With such a barrage of shocks and surprise developments, The Daughter does tip-toe a very fine line – ultimately a few of the many plot threads are left unresolved, and it does occasionally threaten to topple over into complete melodrama. But what could have become “Neighbours: The Movie” is saved from soap opera trappings by an intriguingly bleak and mysterious tale, an assembly of outstanding acting and some superb work from behind the camera. Stone has so remarkably created such an entertaining and thrilling first feature that he immediately cements himself as one to keep an eye on; as does Australia’s accelerating film industry and our escalating quality of releases – 2016 already looks like exciting stuff for Oz.

The Daughter is available in Australian cinemas from March 17th

Image courtesy of Roadshow Films 

Movie Review – Looking For Grace

One missing girl, two worried parents, and a whole lotta problems – Looking For Grace is suburban noir-comedy with a collection of thrills and spills.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Tom Munday

Angry, rebellious 16-year-old girl Grace (Odessa Young) runs away from home with her best friend, Sappho (Kenya Pearson). After meeting a mysterious boy (Harry Richardson) on the road, Grace’s life is turned upside down, and she is forced to return to suburbia. Her irritable parents, Denise (Radha Mitchell) and Dan (Richard Roxburgh), hire a close-to-retirement detective, Tom (Terry Norris), to bring the family back together. However, several outlying characters threaten to intersect and pull them apart once again.

Australian dramas and comedies typically comes in two plain choices – your typical, slapstick character piece in the outback (The Dressmaker) or the dour, joyless, and introspective flick (Strangerland). Looking For Grace is a well-crafted and unique effort split straight down the middle. The plot, broken up into specific chapters, presents shocking scenarios and turns in detail before peeling back the layers. Leaps (forwards and backwards) in time reveal key details about each character and plot thread.

Director Sue Brooks, known primarily for Australian hits Road to Nhill and Japanese Story, provides a fresh spin on the Australian drama stigma. Her acerbic wit and moving, uncompromising visual style balances the film’s heavy drama and wacky moments. The dramedy intelligently discusses familiar issues; juggling adolescence, chance, relationships, and middle age, with maturity and restraint. Shot in Perth and the wheatbelt region, her and cinematographer Katie Milwright showcase several gorgeous vistas throughout the journey.

Looking For Grace is rounded out by several ground-breaking performances, accentuating each character’s rollercoaster-like arc. Mitchell, known for everything from Australian projects (The Waiting City) to blockbusters (Man on Fire), delivers a light-hearted, original performance as the impatient, active-wear-donning housewife. Roxburgh also provides a wry, charismatic turn as the sketchy husband and father with a wandering eye. Rising star Odessa Young is a standout, portraying ‘normal’ with insatiable charm.

Looking For Grace is this year’s first Aussie cinema gem; solidified by an outside-the-box story, fun performances, and Brooks’ assured direction.

Looking For Grace is available in Australian cinemas from January 26

Images courtesy of Palace Films